Is FreeCIV worth playing if I already have all the official CIV games?

[GloriaRedmond]

I know it's free and therefore there's no reason not to just try it, but what should I expect? 4 and 5 were my main civs, but I do have all of them and try all of them from time to time including playing CIV 1 on a 90's era-Macintosh II that I fixed up. What does FreeCIV offer gameplaywise that's interesting or otherwise different from the official games? Is it just a good free version or does it have it's own feel?

Edited by Geometry Vibes Unblocked 5 minutes ago

[johnfleck02]

You should not expect the presentation, AI polish,Cool Games or streamlined design of the official games. Instead, expect an old-school strategy atmosphere with a lot of depth and flexibility. If you enjoy classic Civ mechanics and experimenting with different rule systems, FreeCiv definitely has its own identity rather than just being a free clone.

[Corbeau]

Also, I don't know if commercial Civ games have such stable Longturn communities. Or anything resembling Longturn. I know for a fact that I would not be playing it if otherwise.

[Dino the Dinosore]

Communities are good. Back in the glory days of Civ2 there was a great thriving community on the old Apolyton forum - that's where I first got into doing the 1-city challenge. In addition to the Longturn community that Corbeau mentioned there is a (maybe smaller) community here on this forum.

I loved Civ2, thought Civ3 was OK, didn't like Civ4 and loathed Civ5. FreeCiv is more like Civ2 with a bit of Civ3 so I'm happy here. The ability to customize your own rulesets is huge, can't do that with the commercial versions.

[Elefant]

Im curious. What didn't you like about civ 4? You say that moddability and community are the biggest factors for you, but civ 4 is the most moddable and has one of, if not the largest community of all the civ games.

[Dino the Dinosore]

It's been so long that I don't remember the details. Most likely I was baby duck imprinted with Civ2 and didn't like that Civ4 was so different. That imprinting also explains why I like FreeCiv - it's a better version of Civ2.

[Corbeau]

I'm probably too old, but newer Civ games (3 or 4 and onwards) have absolutely no appeal to me. Civ is about complexity and choices, and for that I want to be able to swallow huge chunks of data at the same time. And newer Civs are all about artistic and realistic visuals, while for readability what I need is efficient schematics. This is also why I'm stuck with Trident-like tilesets and can't get on with isometric stuff.